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A Cape Town businesswoman has come out with horrendous evidence that her husband did unspeakable things to her while she was unconscious, believing herself to be South Africa’s own Gisèle Pelicot.
Gisèle is that French woman whose husband, Dominique Pelicot, drugged and raped her repeatedly, offering her unconscious body to over 70 men.
Please be warned that this article contains harrowing details that may be difficult for sensitive readers.
News24 reports that when M* managed to access her husband’s phone, she just wanted proof of his drug use, something to explain his wild, erratic behavior. What she found instead shattered her world.
She found some photos of her unconscious, naked and violated. The man she had trusted—her husband—had taken them.
It was three years ago that she decided to go to the police, and after five detectives, her husband still hasn’t been made to give so much as a statement.
In M’s case, the South African police’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit hasn’t just failed her. They’ve dismissed her, treating her like an irritation more than a victim in serious need of justice and closure.
“There was no effort or willingness to help me. I don’t think they even knew how to help me. In this modern age, I got the distinct impression that the police didn’t have the knowledge and understanding to work my case. No matter what I did, I was going nowhere. I was at that police station two to three times a week, pleading for something. Anything. But I got nothing.”
The Discovery
In October 2022, when she found the damning images on her now-estranged husband’s phone, she was already living in fear. Years of abuse—physical, emotional, psychological. She had been searching for signs of his drug addiction, sifting through his messages to confirm what she already suspected: clandestine orders of tik, commonly crystal meth, despite his promises to quit. She found the proof of his drug use. And then, she found that dreaded folder marked ‘personal’ with a grotesque collection.
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One photo showed her kneeling naked in a praying position beside their bed. Others zoomed in on her buttocks, her genitals. A close-up of a finger next to her anus, smeared with what appeared to be faeces. In every image, she was unconscious.
“I was 52. I was in my own home, not out somewhere acting irresponsibly. And the perpetrator was my husband, the man who was supposed to protect me.”
In her statement to police, she wrote what she now believes: she had been drugged, stripped, posed, and violated while unconscious.
“I suspect he penetrated me while I was passed out. I don’t know when. I don’t know how many times.”
And she fears it didn’t stop with him.
International Trips and Missing Memories
On international trips with her husband, she had woken up more than once with no memory of the night before. One time, in the Bahamas, she woke up to find her underwear torn, discarded on the floor—an unusual sight for her, as she is usually meticulous about tidiness. She had a headache and was urinating blood. The last thing she remembered was a reluctant conversation with a couple at the hotel bar.
“I never imagined my own husband could be drugging and handing me over to other men.”
She told the police everything. They nodded, took notes, then did nothing.
A Justice System That Wouldn’t Move
Weeks passed with no word. When she followed up at the station, she was told her case had been referred to the FCS Unit. A detective was assigned. He promised to investigate. More weeks. More silence. She kept returning. Kept asking. He brushed her off, overwhelmed with cases, drowning in paperwork, uninterested.
Then he was transferred. Her case was passed to another detective. She told her story again. And again, the same cycle: empty promises, no progress, trauma on trauma.
Detective number three? Gone in six weeks. Detective number four? He asked for her bra size. Asked about her sex life. Told her if she were his wife, he’d have sex with her more often. She endured his comments, desperate for help. Then he too was transferred. Another restart.
The last detective assigned to her case informed her that the case had been misfiled as a cybercrime. It should have been registered as sexual assault, rape, and the distribution of pornography. He said he would fix it and never did.
Instead, the prosecutor at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court dismissed her case outright. Why? Because they couldn’t ‘prove’ her husband was the one in the photos.
No investigation, no attempt to seize the phone, no effort to track who took the images or if they had been shared, just a dismissal. But M kept fighting.
“But all I got was nothing. I went to that station two to three times a week, pleading for them to do something—anything. But they looked at me like I was the problem.”
Living in Fear
Meanwhile, her life crumbled. Their home—where her husband still lived—was in foreclosure as he had stopped paying the bond. He was drowning in debt, racking up loans and overdrafts in both their names. She was being forced to pay for luxury sports cars bought as ‘gifts’ in her name.
And worse, she feared for her life.
“But all that aside, I have a real fear that he will kill me. An assault case I laid against him for injuring my wrist got thrown out because the prosecutor wasn’t convinced that the State could prove he intended to hurt me. I have asked these officers on numerous occasions: do you want to deal with the case I am making or do you want to investigate my eventual murder?”
He then posted on Facebook a photo of M sitting in a coffee shop, captioned ‘denom’—demon. Underneath, a chilling comment:
“If only [I] knew then what I know now… I would never of [sic] offered to pat [sic] for her meal…. would have been much smarter investment to rather start putting that cash into a Lawyer/Bail/Hitman interest-bearing account!!!!!”
Another post:
“The only hood [good] wife is a dead one.”
She obtained a protection order, barring him from approaching her, stalking her, or distributing any images of her. Even with a protection order in place, she waited a week for police to serve it.
“I could have died waiting. This man used to sit and watch me exercise in the park – just staring at me with hate in his eyes. Me, the person he wanted a protection order against.”
A Last Resort—Public Exposure
Desperate, she contacted News24. After inquiries were made, the police suddenly took notice. Her case was reopened.
Now, detectives from Paarl have her docket. And an internal investigation has been launched against the officers who mishandled her case. Finally, M feels a glimmer of hope.
“That’s all I wanted.” For them to do their jobs.
But her thoughts linger on the other women she saw in that police station.
“But I am a financially fortunate, white, self-employed businesswoman with a car. What about the poor, black African women who sat there in that police station all the times that I have been there, who took taxis to get there, with their barefoot children on their laps waiting for someone to help them?
“What recourse is there for them? What happened to their cases?”
The National Prosecuting Authority had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
[Source: News24]
